A simple method of recycling waste silicon from microchips that could help ease the shortage of refined silicon for solar energy panels has been developed by IBM.

IBM estimates that 3.3 percent of these wafers are normally scrapped before they reach the market, which adds up to nearly 3 million discarded wafers per year. It reckons the silicon from these discarded wafers could make solar panels capable of generating 13.5 megawatts of energy.